How to Use the Hemingway Editor

byDianeScorpio

18.3K followers

4 years ago

So, did you know that the average person reads at Grade 7 level?

In other words, the same as an 11 to 12-year-old.

Your writing needs to be at this level to be understood by all readers.

Although, I appreciate some niches are targeted at more "intellectual" audiences, shall we say.

You might think that you don't want to "dumb down" your content.

But that is one of the skills of copywriting.

Short sentences, clear and concise.

And yet, bold, attention-grabbing, and relatable.

Some of the world's greatest authors typically write at Grade 7 and below.

A recent experiment involved checking the reading age of well-known bestsellers.

Ernest Hemingway, Jane Austen, J.R.R. Tolkien, JK Rowling, and even Stephen King write at this level.

This leads me nicely to the Hemingway Editor.

This free tool is named after Hemingway, who actually wrote at Grade 4 level.

https://hemingwayapp.com/

It will help you tighten up your content, make it have more of an impact, and in general, be easier to read.

Simply copy and paste your content and it will come back with color-coded results to show where you could improve.

And it will show you your readability score.

Just for fun, I used this post to show you the results.

My readability score is 5, which is very good, but even so, it suggests some improvements could be made.

If you hover over each color block, it will give examples of what you could write instead.

Obviously, there are similar tools you could use, such as Grammarly, and some SEO plugins also offer advice on your content.

At the end of the day, remember you are writing for real people, and don't feel obliged to change everything as suggested.

Why not give it a go, and tell me what score you achieved?